For thousands of years tribute was extracted by conquering land and looting silver and gold, as in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, or Incan Peru and Aztec Mexico three centuries later. But who needs a military war when the same objective can be won financially? Today's preferred mode of warfare is financial. Victory in today's monetary warfare promises to go to whatever economy's banking system can create the most credit. Computer keyboards are today's army appropriating the world's resources.

The key to victory is to persuade foreign central banks to accept this electronic credit, bringing pressure to bear via the International Monetary Fund, meeting this last weekend. The aim is nothing as blatant as extracting overt tribute by military occupation. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means? All that is required is for central banks to accept dollar credit of depreciating international value in payment for local assets.

But the world has seen the Plaza Accord derail Japan's economy by obliging its currency to appreciate while lowering interest rates by flooding its economy with enough credit to inflate a real estate bubble. The alternative to a new currency war "getting completely out of control," the bank lobbyist suggested, is "to try and reach some broad understandings about where currencies should move." However, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was more realistic. "I'm not sure the mood is to have a new Plaza or Louvre accord," he said at a press briefing. "We are in a different time today." On the eve of the Washington IMF meetings he added: "The idea that there is an absolute need in a globalised world to work together may lose some steam." (Alan Beattie Chris Giles and Michiyo Nakamoto, "Currency war fears dominate IMF talks," Financial Times, October 9, 2010, and Alex Frangos, "Easy Money Churns Emerging Markets," Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2010.)

Quite the contrary, he added: "We can understand that some element of capital controls [need to] be put in place."

The great question in global finance today is thus how long other nations will continue to succumb as the cumulative costs rise into the financial stratosphere? The world is being forced to choose between financial anarchy and subordination to a new U.S. economic nationalism. This is what is prompting nations to create an alternative financial system altogether. (Emphasis added.)

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."